Pour yourself a big cup of warm cocoa and sit down. I have a cautionary Christmas story for you.
Remember the holiday classic “Santa Claus is coming to Town”? It’s a stop-motion animation story of an abandoned baby who is adopted by elves. He becomes part of the Kringle family. They all have rhyming names (Ringle, Dingle, Zingle, Tingle and Wingle) fortunately they decide to name him Kris. When he grows up, Kris hopes to restore the Kringle family as “The First Toymakers to the King”. He has a dream! He wants to bring joy to the world. He wants to make toys for the King and the kids.
He wants to make the world a better place.
Do you know anybody like that?
But wait…
There is a problem. Sometimes when you have a perfectly beautiful dream, someone or something crushes it like a glass Christmas ornament.
Kris encounters a dream killer.
The nemesis of the Kringle family and the villain of this tale was Burgermeister Meisterburger (which incidentally was also the original name of the George Foreman grill).
Burgermeister Meisterburger was the Mayor of a gloomy little town called Sombertown.
You might not guess from the name but Sombertown was not a very happy place.
One fateful day Herr Burgermeister trips on a toy duck (it was a fowl fall!) in front of City Hall. Evidently he breaks his funny bone, because he outlaws toys, No kidding!! Toys are declared illegal, immoral, and unlawful. (My office would get me thrown into the dungeon for life!)
Because of pride, the Burgermeister Meisterburger turns an embarrassing fall into an excuse to hurt others. He builds a prison out of his pain. He mandated his misery and made everybody else miserable. He had forgotten how to play, so he made fun an act of rebellion.
He threw others into a dungeon of his own design.
He made his misery mandatory.
He killed the dreams of those around him.
Do you know anybody like that?
But wait…
Wiggle my ears and tickle my toes,
Here’s some stop-motion truth…
You will eventually cry, you will eventually pout, I’m telling you why…
We all spend time in Sombertown, that’s life.
Bad things happen, we trip, we get hurt. We experience disappointment and heartache. We visit Sombertown, it’s NOT a nice place to visit!
It’s certainly not a nice place to take up permanent residence!
Don’t live in Sombertown.
AND don’t be the one who keeps other people in Sombertown. Don’t make your misery mandatory for the people around you.
Don’t be the Mayor of Sombertown.
But wait…
Wiggle my ears and tickle my toes,
Here’s some stop-motion truth…
Changing from bad to good’s as easy as taking your first step.
Take a step out of Sombertown.
Take a look at what you have instead of what you don’t have. Don’t take yourself so seriously. Build others up.
Realize that pain is temporary, scars become stories, joy is meant to last forever.
And never pass up the opportunity to dream and play and help others do the same!
Take a step out of Sombertown.
I recommend Joyland.
The property taxes are much cheaper.
carbonated joy 